Sony’s excellent online-only PS3 blast-party, Warhawk, is due yet another update. Better yet this one’s free and is heading our way before the month is out – August 27th, in fact.

These glad tidings come direct from the game’s director, Dylan Jobe, who lists the goodies bundled into update v1.5 (as they’ve snappily titled it). So what’s in store? Well, quite a lot, actually. Deep breath:

• Custom in-game music
Use the PS3’s XrossMediaBar music player to add your own suitably banging choons to the proceedings. Clever old Warhawk even detects if you’re using the XMB player and automatically disables the actual in-game music automatically. Sweet.

• XMB Trophies
There are 56 new trophies to aim for, covering the main game and the booster packs.

• Training Tutorials
A very useful feature, this – especially for newcomers to the game whose naivety and general cack-handedness may already have been cruelly ridiculed and punished by grizzled veterans. In short v.1.5 offers four offline schoolings covering the basic gameplay modes – infantry, ground vehicles and aircraft (a trophy is awarded for successful completion of all three) – and ‘Flight Practice’, in which the goal is destroy as many attack drones as possible within three hectic minutes. Top stuff.

• Retract Clan Invites
Clan administrators can now take back invitations to join their gang. We wouldn’t be part of any club that would have us as members anyway. Sniff...

• New Paint Schemes and Insignia
20 new paintjobs and 50 new insignia. All designed by European gamers. Seen?

• GGL Ceremonial Blades
These tasty combat blades (pictured) are nice little extra for players taking part in the recent GGL tournament. The rest of us are supposed to look on in fear and envy, presumably?

• Rookie Server Colour-Coding
Rookie servers will be highlighted in a fetching shade of green and eligible players will find such servers automatically sorted to the top of the list. That’s pretty helpful, we guess.

And that’s it for the main features of v1.5, although Jobe goes on to list a few more minor updates and to hint about the contents of the next booster pack. What do you think he could be talking about here?

“With one of these equipped a soldier can escape quickly... even bail out if needed”

Hopefully we’ll find out at Leipzig later this month...